Sam Dastyari (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

You are right that a big focus of the inquiry was related to credit card interest rates and credit card interest payments. You are correct. That being said, though, there was quite a bit of work done on other types of payments. There was specifically within the terms of reference, I recall, reference to ATM fees, which we are here today discussing in an amendment before us, but it did not come up, there were no witnesses provided and it was not the focus of the inquiry even though there had been an opportunity to have had that debate in a different place.

What you are saying is in part true, and I do not in any way, shape or form think that you are intentionally saying the wrong thing. The focus was around credit card interest rates. But if you look at the terms of reference there was a specific one looking at certain matters like fees. We had quite a look at the payment system and how the payment system as a whole works. The system itself has quite a few different complexities around how secret or hidden payments are made, and there was quite a bit of evidence from Visa, MasterCard and others around disclosure and transparency on that front. So while you are correct that perhaps the headline focus of the inquiry was around credit card interest rates, there were a whole lot of other matters relating to payments that were explored through the process.